Spiritual Research System and Method

ABSTRACT

A computerized system and method are presented that provide access to a research archive for researching fundamental texts of a variety of spiritual and religious domains. The research archive is oriented around ideas having snippets from the fundamental texts. Each idea is associated with a single life issue tag and a religious or spiritual domain. Each idea is further associated with a fixed number of commentaries that comment on the snippet from the point of view of the religious domain and its relationship to the associated life issue tag. The fixed number of commentaries are each written with respect to a particular role. Customized study guides to the spiritual documents can be created using the commentaries by selecting religious or spiritual domains or life issue tags to choose a subset of commentaries to be displayed with the spiritual document.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 15/181,821, filedJun. 14, 2016, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No.13/833,340, filed Mar. 15, 2013, which in turn is a continuation-in-partof U.S. Ser. No. 13/832,249, filed Mar. 15, 2013. All of theseapplications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present application relates to the field of computerized systemsthat automate the process of spiritual research.

SUMMARY

An embodiment of the present invention provides one or more servercomputer systems that provide access to a research archive forresearching fundamental texts of a variety of spiritual and religiousdomains.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a server capable of implementing aresearch archive of the present invention in the context of a largersystem.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the major components of an archiveserver computer.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a portion of a hierarchy of lifeissue tags.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a portion of a hierarchy ofdomains.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example idea in the context ofthe related database entities.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing a system of the creation of new synonymsbased on user interaction.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing related synonyms for a life issuetag along with suggested synonyms to be presented to a subject matterexpert.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing a method of searching for and presentingideas from a research archive.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a user interface for presentingideas in response to a search.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a user interface for presentingan idea within its research archive context.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a user interface for the creationand presentation of custom document study guide.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing explicit and implicit linksbetween snippets, documents, and domains.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing relationships between individualperson database entities.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing a partial map of the personalconnections between individuals

DETAILED DESCRIPTION System Overview

FIG. 1 shows the major elements of a system 100 in which the presentinvention can be used. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, thecomputerized system 100 utilizes three separate server systems, namelyan archive server 110, a spiritual community server 120, and a personalreflections book server 130. Each of these servers 110, 120, 130 uses aset of software instructions or interfaces stored on a non-volatile,non-transitory, computer readable medium 112, 122, 132, respectively,such as a hard drive or flash memory device. A programmable digitalprocessor 114, 124, 134, such as a general purpose CPU manufactured byIntel Corporation (Mountain View, Calif.) or Advanced Micro Devices,Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), accesses and performs the software. To improveefficiency, the processors 114, 124, 134 may load software stored inmemory 112, 122, 132 into faster, but volatile RAM 116, 126, 136. Dataoperated upon by the software can also be stored in non-volatile memory112, 122, 132 and retrieved into RAM 116, 126, 136 for analysis,recording, and reporting. The software typically includes operatingsystem software, such as LINUX (available from multiple companies underopen source licensing terms) or WINDOWS (available from MicrosoftCorporation of Redmond, Wash.).

Each of the server systems 110, 120, 130 further includes a networkinterface 118, 128, 138 to communicate with other computerized devicesacross a digital data network 150. In one embodiment, the network 150 iswide area network such as the Internet or a TCP/IP-based Intranet, andthe network interfaces 118, 128, 138 each include TCP/IP protocol stacksfor communicating over the network 150. The network interfaces 118, 128,138 may connect to the network 150 wirelessly or through a physicalwired connection. The network interfaces 118, 128, 138 can also be usedto provide communication between the servers 110, 120, 130, such as overa local area network 140.

The computerized system 100 is shown in FIG. 1 as three separate serversystems 110, 120, 130 to emphasize the distinct services provided byeach of these systems 110, 120, 130. Each of these separate serversystems 110, 120, 130 can be implemented on a single computer with asingle processor 114, 124, 134. Alternatively, each server system 110,120, 130 could also implemented using a network of computers alloperating according to the instructions of the software. In fact, theentire system 100 could easily be implemented on a single computersystem using one or more processors.

The computerized system 100 provides access to data on the servers 110,120, 130 over the network 150 to a user computer system 160. The usercomputer system 160 could be similar in construction to the serversystems 110, 120, 130 that make up system 100, utilizing ageneral-purpose processor such as those provided by Intel Corporation orAdvanced Micro Devices. Alternatively, the user computer system 160could be a portable computing device such as a tablet computer or smartphone. These kinds of devices generally use specific operating systemsdesigned for mobile devices, such as iOS from Apple Inc. (Cupertino,Calif.) or ANDROID OS from Google Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.), and alsofrequently use mobile specific processors, such as those designed by ARMHoldings (Cambridge, UK). The user computer system 160 allows a user toaccess and update the data found on the servers 110, 120, 130.

In addition, the computerized system 100 provides access to the data onthe servers 110, 120, 130 to a subject matter expert (or “SME”)computing system 170. Like the user computer system 160, the SMEcomputing system 170 could be a general-purpose computer or a mobiledevice. Also like the user computer system 160, the SME computing system170 accesses and updates the data found on the servers 110, 120, 130.The SME computing system 170 differs from the user computing system 160in the type of access provided to the data and also in the type of toolsthat are made available to experts as they assist with the developmentof the data. The SME computing system 170 is usable only by experts inthe religious and spiritual subject matters that are found in theservers 110, 120, 130. The system 100 grants these experts the abilityto add and change data in the system 100 that is not alterable by otherusers.

Each server system 110, 120, 130 manages a database and providesinterfaces to the database to one or more user computing systems 160over the network 150. The archive server 110 contains data aboutspiritual texts and life issues. This data is sometimes referred toherein as the “research archive.” The spiritual texts are taken from avariety of spiritual and religious beliefs referred to herein asdomains. One of the primary data elements maintained by the archiveserver 110 is an “idea.” Each idea contains or refers to a snippet orquotation from a spiritual text that is considered a foundational textfor one of the domains of the research archive. Each idea also containsor refers to a set number of commentaries on the snippet. Thecommentaries are written from the point of view of a particular domain,and each commentary is written in the context of a particular approachto that domain. Furthermore, each idea approaches the snippet of text inthe context of a particular life issue. Life issues are organized astags within a life issue tag hierarchy maintained by the archive. Thisis described in more detail below in connection with FIGS. 2 and 3.

The spiritual community server 120 provides a social networking space tothe user computer 160 organized around community spaces. Communityspaces may have closed memberships to outsiders, creating socialnetworking areas that are open only to a defined constituency. Examplesinclude clergy spaces that are open only to clergy of a particulardenomination and congregational spaces open only to known members of aspiritual congregation. Members of these communities use the spiritualcommunity server 120 to engage with each other over spiritual issues.

The personal reflections book server 130 provides the user computingdevice 160 with the resources necessary to plan, document, andcontemplate a personal life journey. The personal reflections bookserver 130 allows a user to record thoughts and actions, and plan forfuture actions and deeds. The personal reflections book server 130 isdeeply integrated into the archive provided by the archive server 110,allowing research into the archive to place meaning on the events andbeliefs recorded through the personal reflections book server 130.

The computer system 100 monitors users in all three aspects of thesystem 100. This allows the system 100 to track behavior and movementwithin the system, and to present suggestions for consideration by theusers. A user struggling with a life issue using the personalreflections book server 130 could be identified by the system 100, andrelated ideas from the archive server 110 could be suggested to theuser. Alternatively, the system could recommend conversations or otherinteractions maintained by the spiritual community server 120 that arerelated to that struggle. Paths taken by a user through the system 100can be recorded, and outcomes of various struggles, decisions, and lifeevents could be determined. This data could be aggregated to removepersonally identifying information and then shared with other users,researchers, and educational and spiritual institutions. Moreinformation about the spiritual community server 120 and the personalreflections book server 130 can be found in the parent patentapplication incorporated above.

Archive Structure

The archive server 110 of FIG. 1 can be implemented as one or more webserver computers 220 communicating with a user computer 200 and asubject matter expert computer 204 over the World Wide Web 210, as shownin FIG. 2 and FIG. 2A. The archive server computer 220 uses a processor230, a network interface 240, and web programming 250 to provideweb-based interfaces 202, 206 over the web 210. The user interface 202provides the ability to access the research archive that is stored andmanaged by the archive server 220. The SME interface 206 provides theability to alter the research archive to include the subject materexpertise of the expert using the SME interface 206. The researcharchive is also accessed and used by the spiritual community server 120and the personal reflections book server 130.

In the preferred embodiment, the archive server computer 220 stores theresearch archive in a structured database 260. The archive can beconfigured to maintain data in a variety of different types of databaseentities, such as separate tables in a relational database, or asdatabase objects in an object-oriented database environment. Thesedatabase entities can identify data in a variety of ways, such asstoring the data within the object itself, or providing a link to datathat is found in a different database entity, or even by providingaccess to data stored completely outside of the database 260. Ingeneral, one can think of the database 260 as being stored in the memoryof the research archive server computer 220 as both data and relateddatabase programming, and can think of the data being “in” or “containedby” a particular data entity, even though the actual data may only beidentified by the data entities within the database 260 and be storedoutside the database 260 altogether. The database programming directsthe processor 230 to access, manipulate, update, and report on the datain the database 260 as further described herein. In this manner, thedatabase programming effectively transforms the data from raw data inputinto new types of data based on algorithms and existing relationships.FIG. 2 shows the database 260 with tables or objects for a life issuetags 270, ideas 280, and domains 290. Relationships between the databaseentities, including entities 270, 280, and 290 are represented in FIG. 2using crow's foot notation. For example, FIG. 2 shows that a life issuetag 270 may be related to (or “associated with”) multiple ideas 280, buteach idea 280 is associated with only a single life issue tag 270.Associations or relationships between the database entities shown inFIG. 2 can be implemented through a variety of known databasetechniques, such as through the use of foreign key fields andassociative tables in a relational database model.

The life issue tag database entity 270 contains an identifier and adescription for a particular life issue that may face an individual,such as “marriage” or “death of a parent.” These database entities 270are referred to as life issue “tags” because these are used to “tag” aparticular life issue onto a different type of database entity. It wouldbe fully acceptable to simply refer to these items of data as life issuedatabase entities 270 without use of the word “tag.”

The life issue tags 270 are organized within a life issue tag hierarchy272 maintained by the archive database 260. This means that each tag 270may be assigned one or more child tags 270 through the use of a childrelationship 274. It is to be understood that the hierarchy 272 could becreated with a parent relationship instead of a child relationship 274,or by using both child 274 and parent relationships. Within the lifeissue tag hierarchy 272, individual tags 270 may have a parent tag 270,one or more sibling tags 270, and one or more child tags 270.

FIG. 3 shows one portion of an example life issue tag hierarchy 300. Inthis example, tag 310 deals with the life issue of relationships. Twochild tags 320, 322 of the relationships tag 310 are shown in FIG. 3,namely the marriage tag 320 and the parent/child relationship tag 322.The marriage tag 320 is itself shown with seven child tags 330-342,namely a fidelity tag 330, a weddings tag 332, a children in marriagetag 334, a death of a spouse tag 336, a support of family tag 338, anin-laws tag 340, and a divorce tag 342. In this hierarchy 300, themarriage tag 320 has one parent tag 310, one sibling tag 322, and sevenchild tags 330-342. The fidelity tag 330 has one grandparent tag 310,one parent tag 320, and six sibling tags 332-342. The parent 320 andgrandparent tag 310 can both be considered ancestor tags of the fidelitytag 330. Similarly, all of the tags assigned reference numerals 320-342are progeny tags of the relationship tag 310.

In one embodiment, every tag 310-342 has only a single parent tag andtherefore is found in only one location in the hierarchy 300. In otherembodiments, a single tag 330-342 may have multiple parents and cantherefore be duplicated at multiple locations in the hierarchy 300. Forexample, the death of a spouse tag 336 could be a child tag to themarriage life issue tag 320, and could also be a child tag to a “death”life issue tag (not shown in FIG. 3). In some embodiments, every time adata element is associated with a life issue tag 270 it is automaticallyassociated with the parent of that life issue tag 270, or even allancestors of that tag 270. This association could be hard coded into thedatabase. Alternatively, this could be accomplishing during data access,where a request for information relating to a parent tag would alsoautomatically retrieve information relating to a child's tag. Forinstance, a request for information relating to the marriage tag wouldinclude information associated with the in-laws tag 340.

Returning to FIG. 2, the research archive database 260 can contain oneor more synonym data base entities 276 that are associated with eachlife issue tag 270. This allows the user interface 202 to accept a keyword search for a particular life issue tag 270. The content of the lifeissue tag entities 270 and the synonym entities 276 can then be searchedfor occurrences of those key words. If the key words were not found inthe title or description of any of the life issue tags 270 but werefound in the synonyms 276, the appropriate life issue tags 270 couldstill be identified by identifying the life issue tags 270 associatedwith the found synonyms 276. This is described in more detail below inconnection with FIG. 6.

The idea database entities 280 each reference a single snippet orquotation 282 from a spiritual text document 288 that is considered afoundational document for one of the domains 290 of the archive database260. The domains 290 are categorizations of spiritual or religiousbodies or groups of believers, such as Sufism, Southern Baptist, orCatholic. Domains are identified through the domain database entity 290.As was the case with life issue tags 270, the archive database 260maintains a hierarchy of domains 292 by assigning a child relationship294 between one domain and another. FIG. 4 shows one portion of anexample domain hierarch 400. The top domain 290 shown in this section ofthe hierarchy 400 is Christianity 410. This domain 410 has two children,namely western Christianity 420 and eastern Christianity 422. WesternChristianity 420 has two child domains 290 in hierarchy 400, namelyCatholic 430 and Protestant 432. The Protestant domain 432 itself hassix children, namely Anglican 440, Presbyterian 442, Methodist 444,Lutheran 446, Baptist 448, and Reformed 450. Each of these childrendomains 440-450 could itself be a parent domain 290 for other recognizedreligious domains 290. As was the case with the life issue tag hierarchy300, domains 410-450 in the domain hierarchy 400 can have ancestordomains (parents, grandparents, etc.) and progeny domains (children,grandchildren, etc.).

FIG. 2 shows that each domain 290 is associated with a plurality ofspiritual documents 288, with the documents 288 that are associated witha single domain 290 constituting the “corpus” for that domain 290. Thesedocuments 288 were selected by subject matter experts using interface206 as a representative group of spiritual documents 288 for that domain290. Not surprisingly, the documents 288 can be assigned to multipledomains 290, as numerous religious and spiritual domains 290 sharespiritual documents 288 with other domains 290. Each snippet 282 is aquotation or an excerpt from a spiritual document 288. Every document288 can have multiple snippets 282, but every snippet 282 is taken fromonly one document 288.

Each idea 280 is associated with a single life issue tag 270, with asingle domain 290, and with a single snippet 282 that is taken from adocument 288 associated with that domain 290. Consequently, althougheach idea 280 is related to only a single life issue tag 270, snippet282, and domain 290, multiple ideas 280 can exist for a single lifeissue tag 270, snippet 282, or domain 290. Each idea 280 is alsoassociated with a set of commentaries 284. These commentaries arewritten by subject matters experts, each of whom is identified andtracked through a subject matter expert database entity 286. Eachsubject matter expert is an expert on at least one religious orspiritual domain 290, as indicated by the relationships between databaseentities 286, 290 shown in FIG. 2. The subject matter experts write thecommentaries 284 on the snippet 282 for an idea 280 from the point ofview of the idea's domain 290. These commentaries 284 also reflect onhow the snippet 282 relates to the life issue tag 270 assigned to thatidea 280. Each of the set number of commentaries 284 associated with anidea 280 are written in the context of a particular approach to therelated domain 290 as indicated by the role 281 assigned to thatcommentary 284. For instance, five commentaries 284 on the snippet 282could be written from the point of view (or role 281) of i) a historicalanalysis approach within the domain 290, ii) a traditional approachwithin that domain 290, iii) a moderate approach within the domain 290,iv) a modern approach within the domain 290, and v) a comparativeapproach comparing the understanding of the associated domain 290 withother domains 290. In the preferred embodiment, all ideas 280 in thearchive database 260 contain the same number of commentaries 284 (suchas four, five, or six) on the snippet 282, with the commentaries 284 allwritten from the same four (or five or six) different roles 281. Theroles 281 can be implemented in a variety of ways, such as byidentifying the role 281 in the database structure that creates therelationship between the idea 280 and the commentary 284. Alternatively,the commentary database entity 284 could contain data identifying itsrole, or the idea database entity 280 could be constructed to haveseparate, single relationships defined for each of the possible roles281.

In the preferred embodiment, the subject matter experts write theircommentaries through the SME computer interface 206. In anotherembodiment, the computerized system may allows users to inputuser-commentaries into the system using the user interface 202. Thesecommentaries would be distinguished from the SME commentaries, as theymight not be as useful/reliable as the commentaries 284 created byexperts. However, user-created commentaries could be very useful infilling out the database 260 while subject matter experts are stilldrafting up their own expert commentaries. The user-generatedcommentaries could be identified with particular users within thedatabase 260. Furthermore, other user's could review, comment on, andrate the user commentaries. Users that have received positive commentsand ratings for their commentaries would be identified, and theiruser-generated commentaries would be given more prominence with thecomputerized system 100. In most cases, the user-generated commentariescan be treated the same as expert commentaries. For the purpose ofsimplifying this description, the remainder of this description willgenerally assume that the commentaries 284 in database 260 are generatedby subject matter experts.

It is important to note that a document 288 will frequently take theform of a translation of an ancient text, and that competingtranslations of a text can exist within a single domain 290. Thesetranslations can be represented as separate documents 288 in the domain290, or else might be collected within the research archive database 260as a single document 288 with multiple translations. If multipletranslations exist within a single document 288, each snippet 282 fromthat document 288 may also have multiple translations. Users may electto be shown only a single translation when using the system. Forinstance, the user could specify that only the most recent Englishtranslation be shown, or that the “New Revised Standard” or “King James”versions of the Bible be used. Alternatively, a user may elect to beshown multiple translations simultaneously. Commentaries 284 on thesnippet 282 may relate to all translations, or an expert may elect tofocus their commentary 284 on a particular translation.

In some embodiments, the research archive database 260 relates snippets282 with stories 283. A snippet 282 may tell all or part of a story orincident in the religious document 288, and these stories are identifiedand tracked in the story database entities 283. In some religiousdocuments, the same story is actually told in multiple locations withina document 288. For instance, the Christian Bible relates the story ofthe birth of Jesus in both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke.All snippets 282 within the documents that retell this event areassociated with the story database entity 283. This is true even thoughthe snippets will likely tell different versions of the same story,since each snippet 282 for that story 283 will generally involve thesame or a similar group of persons and relate to the same general event.

In one embodiment, a separate database element 285 is used to identifyand contain data about particular individuals that are described in (orare authors of) the religious documents 288. In FIG. 2, the persons 285database entities are used to track this information. The associationsshown in FIG. 2 show that a person database entity 285 can be associatedwith one or more stories. For instance, this database entity 285 mayindicate that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were individuals associated withthe story of the birth of Jesus. The database 260 may also track lessidentifiable individuals that are associated with the story, includingthe wise men and the shepherds, as well as other individuals that areassociated with but not present at the story, such as the angel Gabrieland King Herod.

The research archive database 260 is also able to include informationconcerning religious images that may portray or otherwise interpretevents, parables, or other descriptions in the religious documents 288.These images are tracked (and may be stored within) image databaseentities 287. As shown in FIG. 2, the images 287 tracked in the database260 are associated with stories 283, and as such are also affiliatedwith snippets 282 of religious documents 288. If the same story 283 isfound in two locations in the same document 288, or in two differentdocuments 288 within a religious domain 290, the image depicting thatstory will be automatically associated with those locations anddocuments 288 using the data structure set forth in FIG. 2. In thepreferred embodiment, the actual images referred in by database entities287 with be digital recreations or copies of artwork created byprofessional and historical artists. For instance, a digital version ofLeonardo da Vinci's “Last Supper” may be one of these images. The actualdigital version may be stored in the research archive database 260, ormay be stored on an external computer or server such as the externalimages computer 208 shown in FIG. 2. When the image is stored externalto the research archive server computer 220, the images database entity287 will include a link that addresses that image over network 210. Notethat the external images computer 208 does not have to be owned by, oreven managed by, the owner or manager of server computer 220. As long ascopyright issues are sorted out, the images can be stored in thousandsof different external image computer 208 that are each individuallyowned and operated. Links (such as URLs) to the images are stored in thedatabase 260, and the actual image is downloaded directly from theexternal image computers 208 directly by the user computer 200.

The person database entities 285 and the images database entities 287are shown in FIG. 2 as being associated with the stories entities 283,which is a useful way to link persons and images to the stories found inthe religious documents. Although it is not shown in FIG. 2, it wouldalso be possible to add additional linkages, between these and otherdatabase entities shown in database 260. For instance, each image 287could directly identify the individuals 285 that are portrayed in theimage, as well as the individual or individuals that have been creditedfor creating the image. Snippets 282 and/or Documents 288 could also bedirectly linked to persons 285 to reflect the subject of the snippet 282or document 288, or to reflect and author or editor of the snippet 282or document 288. The use of the person 285 database entities allowsconnections between individuals (famous person database entities 285)referenced or alluded to in spiritual documents 288 to be shown to auser. As a result of the image database entities 287, images that depicta snippet 282 being studied could also be simultaneously viewed by theuser. In the preferred embodiment, the person database entities 285 arealso internally linked to each other in such a way as to reflect directrelationships between persons in the database. These internalrelationships between different person database entities 285 may reflectfamilial relationships (parent/child), mentoring/student relationships,adversarial relationships, etc. To do so, the relationships contain rolevalues to better define the relationship.

FIG. 5 shows some example data 500 in the research archive database 260.In this case, a single idea 280 is diagrammed. This idea 280 isassociated with the life issue tag 270 of “afterlife.” This life issuetag 270 is in a life issue hierarchy 272, and is shown as a child of theparent tag “death” 271. A synonym 276 has been assigned to the lifeissue tag 270, in this case allowing searches for the word “afterworld”to be associated with the life issue tag afterlife 270. The idea is alsoassociated with a snippet 282, in this case chapter 3, verse 16 of theGospel of St. John. This snippet 282 is taken from a document 288, inthis case the protestant Bible. This document 288 is associated with aparticular domain 290, in this case the Anglican domain 440, which is achild of the Protestant domain 432. Note that a snippet 282 does notneed to be limited to a single verse—a snippet can be of a variety oflengths, which means that a snippet from the Bible can be less than averse, can be multiple chapters, or could be an entire book in theBible.

The idea 280 in FIG. 5 contains five commentaries 284 that provideexpert commentary on the snippet 282. All of the commentaries 284 arewritten from the point of view of the Anglican domain 290, and all ofthe commentaries 284 reflect on how this snippet 282 relates to the lifeissue 270 of the afterlife. The five commentaries differ in their roles281, approaching the same question from the five pre-defined roles: i)an Anglican historical analysis approach, ii) a traditional Anglicanapproach, iii) a moderate Anglican approach, iv) a modern Anglicanapproach, and v) a comparative approach comparing the Anglicanunderstanding with other domains 290. While separate subject matterexperts can be assigned to each of these roles, it is also possible thata single subject matter expert writes commentaries for multiple roles.

Of course, the table or object entities shown in FIGS. 2-5 should not beconsidered to show actual implementation details of the database 260,since it is well within the scope of the art to implement this type ofdata using a variety of entity architectures. The entities shown areexemplary, intended to aid in the understanding of the data maintainedby the system database 260 in this embodiment. It is not even necessaryto implement these entities as formal tables or objects, as otherdatabase paradigms could also effectively implement these types of datastructures. Throughout the remainder of this disclosure, the content andinterrelationship of database structures will continue to be exploredusing these example data structures, but these structures should not beconsidered to limit the way in which these databases can be constructed.

Searching and Displaying of Results

One benefit of this construction of the archive database 260 is that itis possible to research the ideas 280 and document snippets 282 byidentifying a life issue tag or tags 270 of interest. FIG. 6 shows aprocess 600 by which a user can enter a search phrase and find relatedideas 280, document snippets 282, stories 283, persons of interest 285,images 287, and commentaries 284, and even if the words used in thesearch phrase were not found in any of these elements 280, 282, 283,285, 287 and 284. The process 600 starts at step 610 where a user entersa search phrase using the user interface 202 provided by the researcharchive server computer 220. The server computer 220 then uses thesearch phrase to identify life issue tag database entities 270. Thesedatabase entities 270 may contain one or more fields that define a lifeissue tag, such as a life issue tag name (e.g., “marriage”) and a lifeissue tag description (“this tag relates to issues concerning two peoplejoined together in marriage”). Step 620 can search all fields in thelife issue tag database entity 270 for a match to the search phrase.

At step 630, the synonym database entities 276 are then compared to thesearch phase to find matching synonyms. If a match is found between thesearch phrase and the synonyms 276, then the related life issue tag 270is identified for the matching synonym 276. For example, FIG. 7 showsfive synonyms 710-718 that have been assigned in the database 260 to thelife issue tag of marriage 320. Using these synonyms 710-718, a searchphrase that includes any of the words “matrimony,” “wedlock,” “wedded,”“espoused,” or “union” would be linked to the life issue tag 320 of“marriage.”

At step 640, the total number of life issue tags 270 found through steps620 and 630 are identified. If only one life issue tag 270 wasidentified, then the process continues at step 650 where the results forthe one discovered life issue tag 270 displayed to the user interface202. These results include the presentation of the identified life issuetag 270 within its location in the life issue tag hierarchy 272, as wellas a listing of idea database entities 280 that are associated with thatlife issue tag 270. One process 800 for selecting and organizing theseidea database entities 280 after a search is shown in FIG. 8 anddescribed below. If more than one life issue tag 270 were identified bythe by step 640, it would be possible to simply list all of theidentified life issue tags 270 and allow the user to select theirdesired tag 650. Process 600 operates differently, in that thediscovered life issue tags 270 are ranked according to a rankingalgorithm at step 660, and then the highest ranked tag 270 in theranking is identified at step 670 for use in the display step 650. Theranking algorithm used in step 660 can use a variety of rankingalgorithms that are known in the prior art. For instance, the tags 270could simply be ordered in terms of their popularity. Tags 270 that areviewed more frequently than other tags 270 by the users of servercomputer 220 would be ranked higher than others. More sophisticatedalgorithms could also be used, such as algorithms that track theactivities and behaviors of previous users who have submitted similarsearch phrases to determine which results have been most useful tousers.

FIG. 8 shows a process 800 for gathering, filtering, and sorting ideadatabase entities 280 that are associated with a particular life issuetag 270. Process 800 begins with step 810, in which a request to presentideas 280 for a particular life issue tag 270 is received. This requestcan come from process 600, which includes a step to display the ideas280 associated the found life issue tag 270 at element 650. This requestcan also come from other aspects of the user interface 202, as isdescribed below.

Using the associations (or “relationships”) established by the database260 between life issue tags 270 and ideas 280, the process 800 caneasily identify those ideas 280 associated with the identified lifeissue tag 270 in step 820. In some circumstances, it may be helpful togather additional ideas 280 beyond those that are directly associatedwith the identified life issue tag 270. If these additional ideas 280are to be gathered, as determined by step 830, step 832 identifieschildren life issue tags 270 of the identified life issue tag 270, andthen identifies the ideas 280 that are associated with these childrentags. Similarly, step 834 identifies parent life issue tags 270 andidentifies ideas 280 associated with these parent tags 270. In step 836,the system 100 uses an analysis of past user behaviors in order topredict other life issue tags 270 that may be of interest to a user. Forinstance, the system may have identified a pattern showing that usersthat research “marriage”, “fidelity,” and “divorce,” life issue tagsalso frequently research ideas 280 related to the life issue tags 270 of“anger” and “reconciliation.” By analyzing the current user's researchbehavior, the system 100 may identify these other tags 270 that may beof interest. These system-identified tags 270 can then be used at step836 to identify additional ideas 280 for presentation to the user.

At step 840, the process 800 determines whether the gathered ideas 280are to be filtered according to the domains 290 that are assigned toeach idea 280. In some circumstances, no filtering will be done and theprocess 800 continues to the sorting steps 850-864. In othercircumstances, a user may have self-identified themselves to the system100 as a believer or practitioner of a particular spiritual or religiousdomain 290. If the user desires, their research of the archive database260 will be limited only those ideas 280 that are associated with theuser's chosen domain 290. In this circumstance, step 842 will filter theideas 280 to include only those associated with the user's domain 290.In other circumstance, multiple domains 290 will be acceptable to a userbut the user does not desire all domains 290 to be included in theirresearch. For example, a self-identified Anglican may desire to includeideas associated with child domains 290 of the Anglican domain, whichmay include an Episcopal Church of the USA domain 290, a Church ofEngland domain 290, an Anglican Church of Australia domain 290, andnumerous other domains 290. Step 844 will filter the gathered ideas 280according to the user selected plurality of domains 290. In someembodiments, ideas 280 associated with child domains 290 areautomatically associated with parent domains 290, such that all ideas280 associated with any Christian domain 290 would be selected if a userelected to view ideas associated with the Christianity domain 290. Step844 may also be used to filter ideas 280 against multiple, unrelateddomains 290. For instance, a self-identified “Anglican” may indicate intheir preferences that they also wish to review ideas 280 stemming fromtwo unrelated spiritual disciplines each having their own domain 290.

At this step 850, the process 800 selects one or more sorting methods852-864 to sort the remaining ideas 280 so as to give preferences tothose ideas 280 that are most likely to be of interest to the user. Forexample, if the user did not filter the ideas 280 by domain 290 butnonetheless indicated a preference for one or more particular domains290, the ideas 280 could be sorted according to those preferred domains290 at step 852. These preferences could have been manually set by theuser using the user interface 202, or could have been identified by thesystem 100 by tracking past user behavior. For example, a user that haspreviously only viewed ideas in the Anglican domain 290 and the New AgeMysticism domain 290 would have the ideas 280 sorted at step 852 so thatideas 280 in those identified domains 290 appear first in the resultlist presented to the user. In the same way, a user could indicate apreference for a particular document (e.g., the protestant Bible), afavorite author (Martin Luther), or a favorite subject matter expertthat writes commentaries 284 for ideas 280, which could cause theprocess 800 to sort the ideas by that document (step 854), author (step856), or subject matter expert (step 858). In addition, the system 100could allow users to rate particular ideas 280, and can then sort theideas 280 at step 860 in order to present the ideas 280 in order oftheir user ratings.

At step 862, the system 100 attempts to assign determine whether userssearching the archive database 260 have achieved a successful outcome. Asuccessful outcome may mean that the user repeatedly returns to the sameidea 280 when researching a life issue tag 270, or that the user quotedcontent from an idea 280 in contributions that the user made to thespiritual community server 120 or the personal reflections book server130. However success is measured, the system 100 can identify ideas 280that have helped users reach a successful outcome, and then sort theresulting ideas 280 according to that success measurement.

Finally, the system 100 can attempt to create a best guess of thoseideas 280 that would be most useful to the current user and then presentthose ideas 280 first in the user interface 202. Step 864 differs fromstep 862 in that step 862 tried to determine which ideas 280 were mostsuccessful to all users, while step 864 attempts to determine the bestideas 280 for the particular user that will view the result. In oneembodiment, step 280 first determines relevant life issue tags 270 anddomains 280 for a user, either through user-set preferences or bywatching user interaction with the system. The system then identifiesprevious users that shared these life issue tags 270 and domains 280 anddetermines which ideas 280 were most popular or useful to these previousissues and then sorts the ideas 280 accordingly.

There is no need to use only a single one of these identified sortingtechniques 852-864. Multiple techniques 852-864 could be combined tocreate a primary and secondary sort for the ideas 280. Once the ideas280 are sorted, the sorted ideas 280 are presented to the user throughthe user interface 202 at step 870, which is described in more detail inconnection with FIG. 9.

Presentation on the User Interface

In response to a search request by a user, a life issue tag 270 isidentified through process 600, and then ideas 280 associated with theidentified life issue tag 270 are gathered, filtered, and sorted inprocess 800, and the results are presented to a user such as throughuser interface 900 shown in FIG. 9. This interface has three main parts:a life issue hierarchy portion 910 that is responsible for displayingthe selected life issue tag 270 in the context of its tag hierarchy 272,a related idea presentation portion 930 that presents sorted ideas 280that are associated with the selected life issue tag 270 and perhapsrelated tags 270 in the tag hierarchy 272, and a best guess portion 970that presents ideas 280 that are not directly related to the presentedlife issue tag 270 but may be of interest to the user.

The life issue hierarchy portion 910 shows the identified life issue tag270 from method 600. In this case, the identified tag is the marriagetag 920. In interface 900, this tag 920 is placed in the center of thelife issue hierarchy portion 910 and is emphasized such as through theuse of bolded or larger text. This emphasis lets the user understandthat this interface 900 is centered on the life issue tag of marriage920. The tag hierarchy portion 910 of interface 900 includes not onlythe identified tag 920, but also the parent of this tag (therelationships tag 922) and at least one child tag (the fidelity tag924). In some embodiments, all children tags are shown in the life issuehierarchy portion 910 of the user interface, as is indicated by showinga second child tag (the weddings life issue tag 926) in dotted lines onFIG. 9. In order to show numerous children tags 924, 926 of the selectedtag 920, it is sometimes helpful to design the interface 900 such thatthe tag hierarchy is positioned vertically along the left side of theinterface 900 as opposed to horizontally on the top side of theinterface 900 as shown in FIG. 9.

By presenting the life issue hierarchy portion 910, a user is able todirectly traverse the life issue tag hierarchy 272 starting at the lifeissue tag 920 selected by their search. In one embodiment, the usersimply clicks on the desired life issue tag 270 shown in portion 910 andinterface 900 is refreshed with the chosen tag 270 becoming thecentered, identified tag 920 of the interface 900. The user can traverseup and down the hierarchy 272 without selecting a particular tag 270using the arrows 912, 914 included in interface portion 910.

Sometimes a user's search phrase will identify more than one life issuetag 270. As discussed above, method 600 will then rank the tags andselect the most likely tag in steps 660 and 670. For example, anindividual might have searched on the word “unions.” This word wasidentified as a synonym 718 of the life issue tag “marriage” 320 asshown in FIG. 7. However, it is possible that the same word “union” wasalso considered a synonym for the life issue tag of “alliances.” Whilemethod 600 ranked the tags 270 and selected the marriage tag 920 as thepreferred tag 270 to display on interface 900, the interface 900 maypresent the user with the opportunity to select the un-selected tag.This is done with question 916, which allows the user to automaticallyselect the alliances life issue tag 270 and refresh interface 900 aroundthat tag.

The related idea presentation area 930 is shown in FIG. 9 with threecolumns 940, 950, 960 of ideas. The main column 940 is placed in thecenter of interface 900 directly underneath the identification of themain life issue tag 920 for interface 900. The ideas 942, 944, 946 inthis column 940 are emphasized to let the user know that these ideas942, 944, 946 relate directly to the marriage life issue tag 920. Theseideas 942-946 have been gathered, filtered, and sorted according toprocess 800. As shown in FIG. 9, these ideas 942, 944, 946 are notpresented in their entirety (which would include the text of the snippet282 and the commentaries 284 on the snippet 282). Rather, the interface900 in FIG. 9 identifies each idea 942, 944, 946 by disclosing thedocument 288, a citation or other identifier for the snippet 282, and auser rating for that idea 280. In other embodiments, language from thesnippet 282 could be included in FIG. 9 to allow the users to read allor part of the snippet 282 before viewing the entire idea 280.

The first column 950 in the idea presentation area 930 shows ideas 952,954 that are associated with the parent life issue tag 922 of“relationships.” Again, interface 900 merely provides some informationabout these ideas 952, 954 without displaying the entire idea 280(including the snippet 292 and the commentaries 284). Because theseideas 952, 954 are not associated with the main life issue tag 920 ofthe interface 900, these ideas 952, 954 are generally deemphasized whencompared with the more central ideas 942, 944, 946 relating to marriage920. The third column shows ideas 962, 964 associated with one of thechildren tags, in this case the “fidelity” life issue tag 924. Byincluding columns 950, 960 of ideas 952, 954, 962, 964 of that are notdirectly related to the central life issue tag 920, the user is able toobtain a broader picture of the ideas 280 that are accessible throughrelated life issue tags 922, 924. This encourages the user to explorethe life issue tag hierarchy through hierarchy interface portion 910 bymanually traversing the hierarchy 272, which will allow the user to morequickly focus in on the exact life issue tag 270 that they desire.

As explained above in connection with step 836, the system 100 maygather ideas 280 for presentation to the user that are not based on aselected life issue tag 270 and its neighbors in the tag hierarchy 272,but instead are based on its analysis of the behavior of other usersthat have characteristics similar to the current user. This allows thesystem to suggest an idea 280 that is associated with a “reconciliation”life issue tag even though the user has only researched the “marriage”,“fidelity,” and “divorce,” life issue tags 270. In interface 900, thisbest guess idea 972 is presented to the user in interface portion 970.This portion 970 is best separated from the related idea presentationportion 930 so that users do not believe that the idea 972 is connecteddirectly to the identified life issue tag 920.

A user may select any of the ideas 942-946, 952-954, 962-964, and 972for more detailed study in the idea user interface 1000 shown in FIG.10. This interface 1000 presents both a single idea 280 but alsoinformation about the context 1002 of the displayed idea 280, includingthe life issue tag 270 and domain 290 assigned to the idea 280; as wellas persons 285, stories 283 and/or images 287 related to the idea. Inthis case, the life issue tag is “children” 1010 and the domain is“Anglican” 1020. In some embodiments, the life issue tag 1010 ispresented within its context of the life issue tag hierarchy 272,showing the parent tag (“family”) and its children tags. Similarly, thedomain tag 1020 can also be shown in the context of the domain hierarchy292 including the parent domain (“Protestant”) and children domains,although this is not shown in FIG. 10. The context 1002 of the idea 280also includes an identification of the document 288 from which thesnippet 282 was taken. In this case, the document 288 is the ProtestantBible (1040), and the snippet is the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 19,verses 13-15 (1050). Frequently the spiritual documents 288 in thearchive database 260 have known authors, so the context information 1002also identified the author 1030 for the document 1040.

The rounded icons shown in the context of FIG. 10 indicate that a usermay select these icons and go to related information. For instance, theuser can select a life issue tag 1010 and go to interface 900 for thatlife issue tag. Alternatively, the user could select the document icon1040 and view the entire contents of the document 1040.

As shown in FIG. 10, the interface displays the text of the snippet1060. This snippet 1060 is associated in the database with a storydatabase entity 283 that is also told in other snippets 282 from otherlocations in the same document 288 or the same domain. The interface1000 identifies this to the user by including a link 1062 that, iffollowed by the user, will then display all of the snippets 282associated with this story 283.

The interface 1000 also can display famous works of art or other images1090, 1091 that are identified in the images 287 database entities asbeing related to this story 283. These images 1090, 1091 can beretrieved from the database 260 or retrieved from the external imagescomputer 208. Alternatively, links to the images found on the externalimages computer 208 can be provided if any necessary rights to displaythe images in interface 1000 cannot be obtained. Likewise, persons ofinterest 285 mentioned in or otherwise associated the snippet 282 andstory 283 may be highlighted directly within the snippet (not shown inFIG. 10), or presented to the user in the form of additional links 1061.These links serve not only to inform the user of the persons of interestin the snippet 1060, but also provide links to additional informationabout those persons stored in the database 260 within the personsdatabase entities 285. The links may take the form of URL links to webpages (or similar documents accessible through the URL) that describethe person, link to snippets where the person is mentioned, or describerelationships involving that person (see FIG. 14 and accompanying text).

Users may view interface 1000 after selecting an idea 280 from thesearch results interface 900. In that case, an icon 1004 on the ideainterface 1000 may allow the user to move easily to the next idea 280discovered in the search results shown in interface 900.

Interface 100 presents the full text of the snippet 1060, and thenpresents the commentaries 1070-1074 that comment on this snippet 1060 inthe context of this life issue 1010 for this domain 1020. As explainedabove, commentaries 284 are preferably associated with pre-defined roles281, with each idea 280 containing a similar set of commentaries 284having the same roles 281. In FIG. 10, only two commentaries 1070-1072are shown. However, if the database 260 were established with a setnumber of roles 281, such as four, five, or six, then interface 1000would present commentaries for all of the set number of roles 281. Eachcommentary 1070, 1072 is written by a subject matter expert usinginterface 206. These SMEs are identified through icons 1080 and 1082, sothat users may identify the expert that writes the commentaries1070-1074. The icons 1080-1082 themselves can be selectable by the userso that the user can go directly to related ideas that containcommentary by the same subject matter expert. Ideally, these icons1080-1082 would also identify the subject matter expert, such as byname.

Although interface 1000 is designed to allow users to view a single idea280, it is possible that the system 100 might suggest additional ideas270 for study by a user based on their past interests and history usingthe system 100. These suggested ideas 1094, 1095 could be presented atthe bottom of the interface 1000. If selected by a user, the interface1000 would be refreshed to show the selected idea 1094 or 1095.

While the interfaces 900, 1000 shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate how auser can select from multiple ideas 280 through searching and traversinga life issue tag hierarchy 300, in some cases a user may wish to reviewideas 280 and commentaries 284 while reviewing a particular spiritualtext 288. As seen in the data relationship structure illustrated in FIG.2, documents 288 are associated with a plurality of snippets 282 thatconstitute a quotation or excerpt from the document 288. Each snippet282 is, in turn, associated with one more ideas 280, each of which canhave one or more commentaries 284 written by subject matter experts 286.The ideas 280, and hence the commentaries 284 associated with thoseideas 280, are in turn associated with a religious or spiritual domain290. In addition, snippets 282 are associated with persons 285, stories283, and images 287.

Because of this relationship structure, it is possible for a user toview a document 288 and be presented with commentaries 284 that areassociated with the snippets 282 of that document 284 being viewed,images 287 that are associated with the stories told by those snippets282, and even information about the people 285 that play a role in thosestories. This possibility is illustrated in user interface 1100 shown inFIGS. 11 and 11 a. In this interface 1100, the user is reading through areligious text 1110. The text 1110 shown in interface 1100 includes bothuncommented text 1111, and two portions of commented text 1114 and 1116.These portions of text 1114, 1116 constitute snippets 282 in theresearch archive database 260 with corresponding ideas 280, commentaries284, stories 283, person links 285, and images 287. The commented text1114, 1116 can be visually distinguished from the uncommented text 1111in a variety of ways, such as by varying the color, the font weight, thefont family, or italicizing the font for the commented text 1114, 1116.This visual distinction tells the reader that these portions of text1114, 1116 have been commented upon by an expert and are otherwisetreated specially in user interface 1100. In this interface 1100, thesnippets 1114, 1116 are right indented, and a portion of thecommentaries available for the snippets 1114, 1116 are shown in-linenext to the commented upon text portion. In FIG. 11, snippet 1114 isshown with two commentaries 1120, 1122, and snippet 1116 is shown ashaving one commentary 1124. Since only a portion of a commentary1120-1124 can be shown on the interface 1100 without disrupting theuser's ability to read through the religious text 1110 uninterrupted,the preferred embodiment requires the user to manually select (e.g.,“click on”) the displayed portion of the commentary 1120-1124 in orderto have the full commentary shown.

Because each commentary 284 in the research archive database 260 isassociated with a snippet 282 only in the context of an idea 280 relatedto a life issue tag 270, each of the displayed commentaries 1120-1124will comment on the text 1114, 1116 in the context of their particularrole 281, domain 290, and the relevant life issue tag 280. This contextmay be presented within or next to the displayed commentary 1120-1124,or may be disclosed only when the user follows a link (which may takethe form of a URL link) to see the entire commentary.

The interface 1100 also displays image 1 (1160) in close relationship tosnippet 1114, and images 2, 3, and 4 (together identified by figurenumeral 1170) in close relationship to snippet 1116. These images 1160,1170 were associated with these snippets 1114, 1116, respectively,through the database entities 287, 282 shown in FIG. 2. In this way, thedocument being reviewed in 1100 is automatically presented with images1160, 1170 that are relevant to the current section being read by theuser.

The interface 1100 also includes a navigation interface 1130 fornavigating through the document 1110. In FIG. 11, the navigationinterface 1130 includes an ability to search for particular text in thedocument (accessed through button 1132) or to review one or more keyword indexes or other indexes or tables (such as a table of contents)for the document (index button 1134). The interface 1100 also includesan output interface 1140 that allows a user to select an option to printpart or all of the document 1110, commentaries 1120-1124, and images1160, 1170 (button 1142) or to create an electronic document 1144 suchas a PDF document (button 1144). In the printed and electronic documentversions, the full text of all commentaries 1120-1124 will be included,such as by inserting the commentaries directly into the text, the use ofmultiple columns, through footnotes, or through some other formattingoption.

One of the primary features of the embodiment shown in the Figures isthat it is possible to create a custom study-guide version of areligious text 1110 by allowing users to select which commentaries (suchas commentaries 1120-1124) are displayed on the computerized interface1100 or are included in the printed or e-document versions. In FIG. 11,the selection of commentaries is made in the selection portion 1150 ofinterface 1100, which includes options for three different techniquesfor selecting commentaries 1120-1124 for display: by religious domain1152, by life issue tag 1154, and/or by author 1156. If the user selectsone of these buttons 1152, 1154, 1156, an interface will be presented(not shown) that will allow the user to select one or more domains 290,life issue tags 270, or subject matter experts 286 for filtering thecommentaries. In FIG. 11, the domain tag 1152 is shown as bolded,indicated that this option has been used to select the commentaries1120-1124. In particular, the user has selected to show onlycommentaries that are associated (through ideas 280) with the domains290 of Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism. This means that commentaries 284written from a protestant or Eastern Orthodox perspective (for example)are not shown in interface 1100. If the user so desired, the displayedcommentaries 1120-1124 could be further limited through the use ofbuttons 1154 and 1156. For example, the user may select to only viewcommentaries from a Catholic perspective dealing with the life issue tagof “death.” In this manner, the user can create a customized studyversion of any religious document 288 in the research archive database260, including only commentaries desired by the user, and presentedeither through a computerized interface, an electronic document, or aphysically printed document.

While the above descriptions explains how users can review ideas bysearching for life issue tags, the use of the research archive database260 allows multiple different paths for discovering data and usefulcommentaries. FIG. 12 shows two possible linkages between data elementsthat are implemented in another embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 12, a user is reviewing an idea 1206 concerning the life issue tagof marriage. This idea is focused around a snippet 1204 of text takenfrom the bible 1202 from the Christianity religious domain 1200. Inreviewing the commentaries 1208, 1210 written for this idea 1206(analyzing the snippet 1204 in relation to the life issue tag 1206), theuser can follow an explicit link that was placed in the commentary to adifferent portion of the research archive database 260. For example,commentary 1208 includes an explicit link (represented by arrow 1230) toa particular snippet 1224 of the Koran 1222. The Koran is a religioustext found in a complete different religious domain 1220, but thesubject matter expert who wrote commentary 1208 found a relationshipbetween the snippet 1204 of the Bible 1202 and the snippet 1224 of theKoran 1222 (at least as in connection with the life issue tag ofmarriage). This relationship was incorporated into the commentary 1208,and users can review the snippet 1224 and study related ideas 1226 byfollowing link 1230. In studying this idea 1226, the user not onlystudies the snippet 1224 itself, but also all of the commentarieswritten on the snippet by the various SMEs on the life issue tag ofmarriage.

The second commentary 1210 shown in FIG. 12 for idea 1206 was written byan author whose primary expertize is the domain of Hinduism 1220. Thisauthor may have been selected to write commentary 1210 because of theunique perspective that her knowledge of Hinduism brings to analyzingthe biblical snippet 1204. A user that enjoys this perspective as seenin the commentary 1210 may be interested in studying more ideasconcerning this same life issue (marriage) from the perspective ofHinduism. The interface presenting commentary 1210 to the user mayinclude a link that asks if the user is interested in such aperspective. If so, the interface will identify how the same life issuetag (marriage) 1222 has been analyzed in the database 260 in the Hindudomain 1220. There are likely many snippets 1224 taken from the texts ofHinduism that relate to and have been analyzed in light of this lifeissue tags. Since ideas are simply analysis of snippets according tolife issue tags, identifying snippets 1224 relating to the life issuetag of marriage 1222 effectively identifies the associated ideas. Thelink 1232 from commentary 1210 to the snippets/ideas 1224 in theHinduism domain 1220 can be considered an implicit link, since thesubject matter expert did not explicitly place that link within thecommentary 1210.

FIG. 13 exemplifies some of the internal links between person databaseentities 285 that may exist in the research archive database 260. InFIG. 13, the person entity associated with Jesus 1310 is associated with(or related to) a separate person entity 1312 associated with his motherMary. The association is shown in FIG. 13 with an arrow bearing thewords “son of.” These words indicate the role of the relationship. Theseroles are technically unidirectional, but most roles can be easilyinverted with a different but related role. For instance, a link in onedirection that indicates “son of” can be inverted to be a link in theother direction with a role of “parent of.” The links shown in FIG. 13are shown only in one direction, but can be considered invert-able orcan be supplemented with additional links in the other direction. Thus,the database entities 1310-1316 indicate that Jesus was the son of Mary,James was a follower of Jesus, and that James was executed by King HerodAgrippa. In the preferred embodiment, two person entities 285 can belinked to together with multiple links each indicating a differingrelationship between the two individuals.

The power of establishing these relationships is that it allows complexrelationships to be identified between persons found in or otherwiserelated to the religious documents 288 found in the research archivedatabase 260. One example of this is found in the relationship “tree” or“map” shown in FIG. 14. A user may be investigating a particular personidentified by original person database entity 1410 in FIG. 14. They maybe curious about the relationship between this person and a particulartarget person identified by a different database entity 1420. Thedatabase can take advantage of the relationships and roles described inFIG. 13 to identify a map that links these two persons. In FIG. 14, thepersons associated with the intermediary person records 1412, 1414, and1416 form a personal link between the original and target person. Byexamining the roles in the links between each of these entities1410-1420, the user will develop a better understanding concerning howthese two religious personages intersected.

The many features and advantages of the invention are apparent from theabove description. Numerous modifications and variations will readilyoccur to those skilled in the art. Since such modifications arepossible, the invention is not to be limited to the exact constructionand operation illustrated and described. Rather, the present inventionshould be limited only by the following claims.

1. A computing machine for spiritual research comprising: a) a networkinterface providing data to a remote computing device over acomputerized network; b) a processor that is controlled via programminginstructions; c) a non-transitory computer readable memory; d) databaseprogramming stored on the non-transitory computer readable memory andperformed by the processor, the database programming managing a databasethat is transformed during operation by the database programming, thedatabase comprising: i) a plurality of document database entities eachidentifying a full text version of a spiritual document, ii) a pluralitysnippet database entities each identifying an excerpt from one spiritualdocument, iii) a plurality of life issue tag database entities eachidentifying a life issue, wherein the life issue is selected from a setcomprising marriage, family, parenting, death, relationships, anddivorce, iv) a plurality of commentary database entities eachidentifying a commentary on one excerpt, v) a plurality of firstdatabase relationships, each first database relationship establishing anassociation in the database between one document database entity and onesnippet database entity to indicate that the spiritual documentidentified by the one document database entity is a source for theexcerpt identified by the one snippet database entity, vi) a pluralityof second database relationships, each second database relationshipestablishing an association in the database between one commentarydatabase entity and one snippet database entity to indicate that thecommentary identified by the one commentary database entity concerns theexcerpt identified by the one snipped database entity, and vii) aplurality of third database relationships, each third databaserelationship establishing an association in the database between onelife issue tag database entity and one commentary database entity toindicate that the commentary identified by the one commentary databaseentity was written to reflect on the life issue identified by the onelife issue tag database entity; and e) user interface programming storedon the non-transitory computer readable memory and performed by theprocessor, the user interface programming providing a user interface tothe remote computing device over the computerized network that: i)receives a selection of a selected spiritual document and a selectedlife issue, ii) uses the database relationships to identify commentarieson excerpts of the selected spiritual document wherein the identifiedcommentaries comment on the identified excerpts reflecting on theselected life issue, and iii) presents the selected spiritual documentover the user interface; iv) presents proximal to the identifiedexcerpts an indication of the identified commentaries that comment onthe identified excerpts.
 2. A method comprising: a) at a computersystem, accessing a computerized database comprising: i) a documentdatabase entity identifying a spiritual document, ii) a plurality ofsnippet database entities each identifying an excerpt from the spiritualdocument and each being linked via a database relationship to thespiritual document, iii) a plurality of life issue tag database entitieseach identifying a life issue, iv) a plurality of commentary databaseentities each identifying a textual commentary and each being linked viadatabase relationships to: (1) one snippet database entity to indicatethat the textual commentary comments on the excerpt identified by theone snippet database entity, and (2) one life issue tag database entityto indicate that the textual commentary comments on the life issueidentified by the one life issue tag database entity; b) at the computersystem, receiving a selection of a selected life issue; c) at thecomputer system and using the computerized database, identifying aselected life issue tag database entity for the selected life issue; d)at the computer system and using the computerized database, identifying:i) a set of commentaries database entities linked to the selected lifeissue tag database entity, and ii) a set of snippet database entitieslinked to any of the commentary database entities in the set ofcommentary database entities, whereby the set of commentaries databaseentities and the set of snippet database entities define a set ofrelevant textual commentaries made on a set of commented excerpts of thespiritual document all commenting on selected life issue; e) at thecomputer system, presenting the spiritual document while presentingproximal to each of the set of commented excerpts a first indicationthat at least one of the set of relevant textual commentaries isavailable for that excerpt.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the lifeissue is selected from a set comprising marriage, family, parenting,death, relationships, and divorce
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein thefirst indication is a link that, when followed, presents the fullrelevant textual commentary.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the firstindication further comprises a sub-portion of the full relevant textualcommentary.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein the computerized databasefurther comprises: v) a story database entity identifying a common storyrelated to multiple excerpts, the story database entity being linked viadatabase relationships to a first plurality of snippet database entitiesto indicate that the common story relates to a plurality ofstory-related excerpts identified by the first plurality of snippetdatabase entities.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: f) atthe computer system and while presenting the spiritual document,presenting proximal to each of the plurality of story-related excerpts asecond indication that other story-related excerpts telling the commonstory are available.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein step f) furtherpresents a link to a different one of the story-related excerpts.
 9. Themethod of claim 6, wherein the database further comprises: vi) an imagedatabase entity identifying an image, the image database entity beinglinked via database relationship to the story database entity indicatingthat the image represents a portion of the common story.
 10. The methodof claim 9, further comprising: f) at the computer system and whilepresenting the spiritual document, presenting the image proximal tomultiple ones of the plurality of story-related excerpts.
 11. The methodof claim 6, wherein the database further comprises: vi) a persondatabase entity identifying an individual person, the person databaseentity being linked via database relationship to the story databaseentity indicating that the individual person plays a role in the commonstory.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: f) at thecomputer system and while presenting the spiritual document, presentinga third indication identifying the individual person proximal to each ofthe plurality of story-related excerpts.
 13. A method comprising: a) ata computer system, maintaining an archive database having databaseentities for: i) a life issue selected from a set comprising marriage,family, parenting, death, relationships, and divorce, ii) a firstspiritual document associated with a first spiritual domain, iii) afirst excerpt from the first spiritual document, iv) a second spiritualdocument associated with a second spiritual domain, v) a second excerptfrom the second spiritual document, vi) an expert that is associatedwith the second spiritual domain; vii) a first expert written commentaryon the first excerpt reflecting on the life issue and associated in thedatabase with the expert; viii) a second expert written commentary onthe second excerpt reflecting on the life issue and associated in thedatabase with the expert; b) at the computer system, receiving over anetwork interface a request for commentaries on the first excerptreflecting on the life issue; c) at the computer system, presenting overthe network interface the first expert written commentary and presentingin association with the first expert written commentary an implicit linkto the second expert written commentary on the second excerpt reflectingon the life issue.